Directed by maya quetzali gonzalez
written BY cori diaz
produced BY emma mueller
⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️
CREATIVE TEAM
Scenic Designer delaney teehan
associate Scenic Designer connor gallerani
Costume Designer cori diaz
Lighting Designer lindsay stevens
Sound Designer MAX VAN
Stage Manager ari richardson
intimacy and fight coordinator caroline parker
⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️
SUMMARY
Twenty-five-year-old Nicolet Diana is known for winning the International Linguistica, a spelling competition as rigorous as the Olympics. But after a world famous linguist is found dead, Nicolet is put under under house arrest, and is convinced someone is communicating with her through her local newspaper’s word-of-the-day segments. Concerned she may be a danger to herself, the police send in Magdalena, a hairstylist turned crisis counselor…who happens to be Nicolet’s ex-girlfriend. Set against a backdrop of obsession, manipulation, and linguistic prowess, The Word of the Day is a powerful examination of toxic devotion, manipulative power dynamics, and the dangerous allure of words.
SYSTEM SETUP & DESIGN CONCEPT
SheNYC is an extensive festival, premiering eight new works within two weeks! With that in mind, the Classic Stage Company limited the audio needs to a simple Stereo LR setup for each audience bank.
Cori Diaz's play The Word of the Play locks the audience in the static room of a spiraling linguist who is on house arrest awaiting her murder trial. We have a glimpse of her obsession with the newspaper's word of the day section through the VO reading out the word, its definition, and an example sentence. As the story progresses, we start to understand how each word ties into the character's daily life, and later on, it is revealed to be an outside force threatening to expose the linguist's secrets. Those VO are crafted to be eerily uncanny at first, exemplifying what the voice inside Nicolet's mind sounds like – robotic and cold – typical of the dictionary words she listens to for her training. With each scene, the VO starts glitching and unfolding as Nicolet pulls the thread on who is behind the word selection.
Using different sonic objects as ways to craft Nicolet's world beyond her confines was quite a challenge:
Listen to the audio samples below!
*Clocks, and its Ticking represent her time in lock-down and the fleeting time of her 'freedom',
*Mechanics, Flashes, and Clicks represent the printing press, her time in the spotlight, and the mold she was shaped into,
*Radios and Static represent her only means to listen to the outside world, her re-watching old tapes of herself to continue her practice while also reminiscing on what once was.
These are sprinkled throughout the transitions, building up to Nicolet's nightmare in which all these elements are heavily emphasized.
The last big underscore sequence is Magdalena's ballet. As Nicolet makes her escape, aided by her ex-girlfriend and now accomplice, Magdalena is left with a room filled with consequences mixed with past memories. Director Maya came to me with a task to build a choreography in which Magdalena is both hiding evidence and reminiscing on the shape of her past. It builds and builds until Mag reaches a Magic 8 ball, letting it decide her next step – which peels off her last shred of self-autonomy, as the police are knocking down the door.
Should I have a next time with the festival, I would set up QLab programming with more flexibility than I did this time, as our time in the space is much more limited than I anticipated, and unpredictable things can compromise the momentum that I had intended to build in the certain moments.
SOUND DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
FOR A BETTER EXPERIENCE, LISTEN WITH HEADPHONES*
TRANSITION COMPILATION | TOS, TRANSITION 3, 4, AND 5
A compilation of transitions illustrates how I maintain a consistent rhythm and finding derivatives of the sound palettes.
The transition into scene 5 uses the word "Pendeloque" as it was previously mentioned that it was the word her Manager gave her to win her early competition, then we go into the scene where Nicolet is now watching old tapes of herself to continue her practice.
MAGDALENA'S BALLET | CLOSING SEQUENCE
As Magdalena picks up the mess of her relationship, she is threading the line between reminiscing and compartmentalizing. The bounce between the two intentions build to the end when she shakes the Magic 8 ball, hoping to find her answer in the ether. I wanted to create something to push the momentum and urgency of the situation, but also allowing "hopeful/desperate" air for Magdalena's clinging onto the past.
PERFORMANCE PHOTOS
PHOTOS BY DANIELLE DeMATTEO
